Organizational productivity is the efficiency with which an organization operates and the balance between input costs and output values. Productivity improves when costs are reduced or when outputs increase in value.

Organizations spend approximately 10 times more for the staff who do the work than for the buildings they work in. Making the right choice of environmental conditions can benefit an organization if it supports the employees, and can provide a double benefit if it also saves energy. Conversely, building conditions (even energy-saving ones) that create discomfort or add barriers to effective work can be costly for both the building operators and tenants.

National Research Council (NRC) has studied the relationship between work environments and organizational productivity for over 15 years, leading to clear evidence that organizations, their employees and the environment itself can all benefit when the right choices are made. These studies include experiments at our facilities in Ottawa, in which we have tested the effects of lighting, ventilation, acoustics and controls technologies on task performance, work engagement, comfort, satisfaction, and well-being. These have been complemented by field studies that have included visits to over 40 buildings across Canada and the northern United States and have included surveys, both online and in person, of over 4000 individual employees.

In the approach described in this document, NRC and Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) members are poised to undertake a structured initiative to demonstrate that smart, integrated technologies produce organizational productivity gains in addition to energy and environmental savings. The result will transform the high-performance buildings industry by establishing the built environment as a strategic tool for organizations to achieve their goals.

Proposed Research - Demonstrating the Value of High-Performance Buildings

NRC is uniquely positioned to demonstrate that smart, integrated technologies produce organizational productivity gains in addition to energy and environmental savings. We will demonstrate that these gains are related to improved indoor environment conditions and that their value is equivalent to other corporate programs. This evidence will accentuate the importance and speed the adoption of these solutions in the high-performance building industry.

This work will build upon the approach described in our 2014 white paper for CABA and in the World Green Building Council report "Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices". Using a balanced scorecard of meaningful metrics, we will demonstrate the value equivalents of technology investments in the built environment in three stages:

Phase 1 synthesized existing data to enable decision-makers to benchmark their buildings against others on multiple organizational productivity metrics. Partners will receive guidance concerning how to use this information to make strategic building decisions for their organizations for the benefit of the organization and its employees. You can download Phase 1 documents here:

Access to full, completed research is only available to participating funding organizations.

Project Funder ($15K)
• Only the funders will receive the full $200,000 US of research.
• Name and logo will be placed on the front page of the research report, slide deck, media releases, and marketing material.
• Opportunity to participate in the final webinar with all the funders which will highlight the findings of the research in detail.
• Ability to ask the questions to the research analysts.
• Final report, executive summary and presentations.
• Will be on the Steering Committee and allowed to: define the research scope and methodology, provide feedback and input regarding the direction of the study, and participate in Steering Committee webinars.
• Will have a special one (1) hour webinar specifically for your organization. Anyone from your organization can attend and receive a detailed overview of the research findings that relate to your organization.
• Will receive bonus research reports that the vendor may provide.
• Will receive a case study within the research to highlight the work your organization has been doing in the area. Case studies are typically supplied by the funder, but in some instances research firms have developed case studies on the funder’s behalf.
• The case study will be included with the executive summary, which will be distributed to all CABA member contacts.

Project Data Supplier ($0)
• This is for a large organization who can contribute a significant amount of anonymized building and human resource data to the project.
• This organization will join the project free of charge and receive all the funder benefits.

SPONSORS

We recently announced this CABA Landmark Research project and already these CABA members have committed to fund Phase 2:

The sponsors below sponsored Phase 1 of this project:

CONTACT INFORMATION
CABA seeks partners to conduct this important work. For more information on this opportunity, please contact Greg Walker, CABA Research Director.